A proposed overhaul of San Diego's campaign finance law would make it easier to know who pays for mass mailings and telephone messages. The changes also would let candidates for mayor and City Council collect more money from donors and set up legal defense funds.

A council committee held a series of 3-0 votes yesterday to recommend a variety of changes to a campaign finance law that was adopted in 1973. Council members Jim Madaffer and Toni Atkins were absent from the three-hour meeting.

It was the second lengthy meeting that the Rules, Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee held this year on the proposal by the city's Ethics Commission.

A review of San Diego's campaign finance law began in late 2002, prompted by changes to state election laws and campaign practices over the last three decades.

The changes were originally proposed to take effect in January 2005, after the current election cycle. But Peters recommended that the council make three of the changes even sooner, and Murphy and Maienschein agreed.

The full council is scheduled to consider the overhaul and the more immediate changes at its Aug. 2 meeting.

"I don't want any advantage out of these changes," Peters said. "But I want to level the playing field."

Before the March primary election, Peters and Murphy were targeted in mass mailings that did not specify who paid for them, prompting some voters to notify the Ethics Commission.

The council will consider requiring campaign committees to state who paid for their mailings and any telephone communications, provisions that are not a part of the state law.

Peters also wants to allow campaign contributions from personal trust accounts as soon as possible.

Such contributions were received in past campaigns, but an April opinion from the Ethics Commission said they are unacceptable. Under city law, campaign funds can be received from no one "other than an individual."

Barring a special meeting of the council, the earliest these changes could take effect, if approved, would be Oct. 7, less than a month before the election.

Stacey Fulhorst, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said she will meet next week with the four council members who are not on the rules committee.

Under the proposed changes, candidates for city office would:

Be prevented from raising money for a campaign until one year before an election.

Be able to get more money per contributor than the current $250 limit.

Be restricted from lending their campaigns more than $100,000.

Local candidates for mayor and city attorney could collect $300 per person, and future limits for all candidates would be tied to the Consumer Price Index and increase every two years, starting in 2007.

Candidates and elected officials also could collect $250 per contributor for a separate legal defense fund to pay for an attorney or auditor required because of questions raised about their campaign or performance in office.

There is no limit on loans that candidates make to their campaigns now. The new cap would be the same as one imposed on candidates seeking citywide offices in Los Angeles, as well as on state and San Diego County candidates.

The Ethics Commission initially proposed loan limits of $15,000 for council races and $25,000 for citywide races for mayor and city attorney, but the committee raised those limits to match what's in place at the state level.

Fulhorst said commission members will support all the changes to their proposal next month, but that they still have interest in a two-tiered loan limit.
Matthew Hall: (619) 542-4599; matthew.hall@uniontrib.com